Hi, Guest
01-30-2011, 01:50 PM
Just an update here and a question:
While I was out buying my tax prep software for this year, grabbed the EA Sports Active 2 for the PS3 and set it up.
The Good
No more farking around with the frigging Nunchuk on the Wii version and nearly killing myself. Instead the program uses wireless monitors that are tracked by a USB dongle on the PS3 (three in total, two for movement on the arms, the left one also is a heart monitor and one on the right leg) which makes doing resistance band exercises much easier for me (easier to hold just a resistance band in my right hand instead of a resistance band and a game controller)
Much wider variety of exercises to be had and a choice of either a two week guided program or a nine week one (I'm starting the nine week plan on Monday)
The Bad
Much harder (if not impossible at this point, the instruction manual makes it totally unclear) to skip exercises during a session, though you can delete them before the session starts if you know you can't do an exercise, but with new exercises and new exercise names it's going to be trial and error for the first while for me as to what I can and can't do.
Crafting a custom workout music track is so far a needlessly complicated thing (have to copy all the music to the PS3 HDD first, no grabbing it from a media server on the fly) might be the only reason I break down and crack the thing open to add a bigger HDD
Remember I mentioned those wireless monitors? Each of them needs two AAA batteries, so that's 6 in total. Looks like another batch of rechargeable batteries is on the shopping list.
Final impressions
Did a workout today to run the system (and me) through its paces. Cranked the intensity back down to medium and a good thing I did. Even while steadily using the original EA Sports Active at high intensity, after the 30 minute session with the new version I was spent and then some.
Assuming the heart rate monitor is doing its job (it had my resting heart rate at 80 odd BPM so I'm assuming its right) I was hitting 170BPM at my peak levels in the exercises I could fully take part in.
So my question is: Is anyone else planning to grab this? One of the other key features is the "online community" where folks can join "workout groups" and track each others progress. Might be interesting to see.
NefCanuck
While I was out buying my tax prep software for this year, grabbed the EA Sports Active 2 for the PS3 and set it up.
The Good
No more farking around with the frigging Nunchuk on the Wii version and nearly killing myself. Instead the program uses wireless monitors that are tracked by a USB dongle on the PS3 (three in total, two for movement on the arms, the left one also is a heart monitor and one on the right leg) which makes doing resistance band exercises much easier for me (easier to hold just a resistance band in my right hand instead of a resistance band and a game controller)
Much wider variety of exercises to be had and a choice of either a two week guided program or a nine week one (I'm starting the nine week plan on Monday)
The Bad
Much harder (if not impossible at this point, the instruction manual makes it totally unclear) to skip exercises during a session, though you can delete them before the session starts if you know you can't do an exercise, but with new exercises and new exercise names it's going to be trial and error for the first while for me as to what I can and can't do.
Crafting a custom workout music track is so far a needlessly complicated thing (have to copy all the music to the PS3 HDD first, no grabbing it from a media server on the fly) might be the only reason I break down and crack the thing open to add a bigger HDD
Remember I mentioned those wireless monitors? Each of them needs two AAA batteries, so that's 6 in total. Looks like another batch of rechargeable batteries is on the shopping list.
Final impressions
Did a workout today to run the system (and me) through its paces. Cranked the intensity back down to medium and a good thing I did. Even while steadily using the original EA Sports Active at high intensity, after the 30 minute session with the new version I was spent and then some.
Assuming the heart rate monitor is doing its job (it had my resting heart rate at 80 odd BPM so I'm assuming its right) I was hitting 170BPM at my peak levels in the exercises I could fully take part in.
So my question is: Is anyone else planning to grab this? One of the other key features is the "online community" where folks can join "workout groups" and track each others progress. Might be interesting to see.
NefCanuck